Good Counsel’s Kyle Snyder wins National Prep wrestling title

By Eric DetweilerBy Eric DetweilerFebruary 26, 2012

Unbeaten and never taken down in his high school career, Good Counsel sophomore Kyle Snyder has been near perfect on the mat the past two years. With a dominating weekend performance at the National Prep wrestling tournament at Lehigh University, the 220-pounder showed he’s only getting better.

Snyder took his second straight title at the season-ending event, powered by two pins, two technical falls and a 17-4 major decision over Wyoming Seminary (Pa.) senior A.J. Vizcarrando in Saturday’s final. He won all 61 of his matches this season, improving to 116-0 at the midpoint of his career.

“I never saw myself losing from my freshman year,” Snyder said. “I’ve always wanted to go undefeated [in my career]. It’s been a goal for a long time, so I’m feeling pretty good right now.”

Snyder looked back on his 3-1 decision over Vizcarrando in last year’s final with regret, disappointed that he stayed defensive in a “boring” match. This time the returning All-Met set the pace, taking control after a scoreless first period to post a convincing win.

He increased his margin of victory against Vizcarrondo — a West Virginia recruit ranked No. 8 in the country by intermatwrestle.com — in all three meetings this season.

“I prepared with the mentality that I was going to go in there and attack whoever I was going to wrestle and score as many points as I could,” Snyder said, “and that’s what I did.”

Snyder — who played noseguard on the Falcons’ top-ranked football team this fall — said he will take this week off from training to recover from what has been a whirlwind few months.

He’ll soon begin preparations for an offseason packed with top national tournaments, beginning with a trip to FloNationals in Philadelphia at the end of next month. In the interim, it won’t be easy to sit back and rest for a wrestler Coach Skylar Saar describes as “one of the hardest workers I’ve ever seen.”

“I’m the type of kid who always likes to keep moving,” Snyder said. “It’s probably going to be a long week.”

Bannister had been waiting for months for the chance to avenge his December loss to Blair Academy’s Todd Preston in the final of the Beast of the East tournament. Bannister got his rematch in Saturday’s final but fell to Preston, 5-4 in overtime, to finish his season at 79-2 overall.